Site Map - skip to main content

Hacker Public Radio

Your ideas, projects, opinions - podcasted.

New episodes every weekday Monday through Friday.
This page was generated by The HPR Robot at


hpr2732 :: Storytelling formula compliance

Telling a story? want a reaction? USE THE FORMULA

<< First, < Previous, , Latest >>

Hosted by Klaatu on 2019-01-22 is flagged as Explicit and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
story, character, plot, writing. (Be the first).
The show is available on the Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/hpr2732

Listen in ogg, spx, or mp3 format. Play now:

Duration: 00:28:12

Information Underground.

Deepgeek, Klaatu, and Lostnbronx discuss things.

Storytelling has had a formula for yearsAndYears. Some people speak of it in disdain ("it was too formulaïc") and others (creative writing and intro film teachers, mostly) praise it. Everybody else (us) is a sucker for it.

Here is the literal formula, in pseudo code:

{A} 
{A} Reinforced

{Z}

{A} Returned

{B...Y}

{Z} Returned

You can (and should, because it's free and you can throw out your work if you don't like it) practise this formula by plugging in events to represent A and Z, where A and Z are polar opposites.

Really obvious examples are any given romantic comedy:

{A} Jack is A="single and free"
{A} Scene to reinforce that Jack is in relationships with no strings attached. Jack is {A}.

{Z} Jack meets Jill, realises she makes him happy. He decides he's had enough of being {A} and want to be {Z=married}

{A} Reunion with old school mate makes Jack question his resolve. He leaves Jill so he can be {A}

{B...Y} Plot happens. Jack does stuff, Jill does stuff. Funny? Tragic? You decide!

{Z} Jack realizes at last that he's only happy with Jill, and that being {Z} with Jill is the only way to be truly free.

You can also try it with the old Evil Empire plot line.

{A} Jill is an {A=obedient citizen}. Loves her mama, loves Jesus and America, too.
{A} Scene in which Jill witnesses a Rebel being mistreated unjustly, but does nothing to stand up for what is right, because she is {A}.

{Z} Jill meets Jack, an outlaw and rebel against the Empire. He's in trouble, so she helps him evade the police.

{A} Jill, horrified at her own rebellion, conforms all the more. She is dedicated to the Empire, and works diligently to hunt down Jack and his rag tag band of rebels.

{B...Y} Plot happens. Action, laser guns, laser swords, nationalism, motorcycle gangs.

{Z} Jill, seeing the devastation her allegiance has caused, realises that the Empire is actually Evil. She joins the rebels to fight for freedom.

Now go practice this. Soon you will be telling stories, jokes, and anecdotes that have a clear beginning, a clear conflict, and a clear ending.


Comments

Subscribe to the comments RSS feed.

Leave Comment

Note to Verbose Commenters
If you can't fit everything you want to say in the comment below then you really should record a response show instead.

Note to Spammers
All comments are moderated. All links are checked by humans. We strip out all html. Feel free to record a show about yourself, or your industry, or any other topic we may find interesting. We also check shows for spam :).

Provide feedback
Your Name/Handle:
Title:
Comment:
Anti Spam Question: What does the letter P in HPR stand for?
Are you a spammer?
What is the HOST_ID for the host of this show?
What does HPR mean to you?